Page 46 of Bratva Hostage

She reaches for another set of documents and shuffles through them like she knows just what she’s looking for. She’s good at this—so good that it makes me wonder how much of it is instinct and how much of it is survival. How many times did she have to predict her father’s next move just to stay ahead of his punishments?

I tell myself it doesn’t matter and that the only thing that matters is the intel she can provide. That’s where my focus should be.

Instead, I focus on her.

She pauses as something catches her attention. Her breath quickens, and her fingers tighten around the edge ofa report. Then she looks up with excitement ablaze in her beautiful hazel eyes. “Wait. Look at this.”

I lean in before I even register I’m doing it. When my shoulder I get a whiff of her scent—something soft and warm, like fresh laundry dried in the sun. It shouldn’t be such a distraction, but the combination of her proximity and that fucking smell is like a drug.

“What is it?” I manage to ask.

She slides the document toward me and points at a line buried within paragraphs of data. “This. One of my father’s associates rented a property two miles from the last safehouse he was using. It’s under a different name, I recognize it as one of his aliases.”

Maksim swears under his breath. “That’s too much of a coincidence.”

“It’s him,” Cecily insists. “Or it’s someone close enough to give us what we need.”

I let the moment stretch between us. She’s waiting for my response, for me to acknowledge that this is real, that she just found something we wouldn’t have seen if she wasn’t involved.

I should be thinking about the logistics of what comes next, focusing on how we can use this information to corner Thorne. Yet, all I can think about is the way she’s looking at me right now.

Pride.

She’s proud of what she just uncovered, and she should be. It’s the best lead we’ve had in weeks. And I should acknowledge that.

But what I want to do is something else entirely.

I pat her on the back like she’s one of my men. Something casual, something to show my appreciation without revealing how affected I am by her. “Good work.”

It’s not enough. Not for her. Not for me.

But it’s all I can allow myself right now.

Still, a small smile ghosts over her lips before she turns back to the map. She’s still studying the data, still discussing possible next steps, but I can feel that something is changing between us. It is shifting, becoming something neither one of us expected.

I should walk away. Should leave her to keep working. Should make it clear that this—whatever this pull is between us—means nothing.

Instead, I watch her.

And I let myself feel it, just for a moment.

The thrill of the hunt. The promise of the kill. And the rush of finally finding a partner who can keep up.

Chapter 18 - Cecily

I swirl the wine in my glass and try not to fidget. The dinner isn’t formal, but it still feels like a test. I can feel eyes on me, gauging how I fit into this world, whether I belong at this table. A week ago, I wouldn’t have. A week ago, I was a liability. Now, I’m something else. What that is exactly, I’m still trying to figure out.

Dimitri sits at the head, listening as Maksim goes over the finer details of tonight’s success. The operation played out exactly how we planned. Father took the bait. Now, we have eyes on his movements and a trail to follow.

It worked.

I should be reveling in that, but my focus keeps drifting. The way Dimitri’s fingers tap idly against the table when he’s thinking. The way his throat moves when he takes a sip from his glass. The way his presence pulls me in even when I don’t want it to.

Things have changed between us.

I notice it in the way he looks at me. When he saw me as merely a means to an end, his gaze was harsh and judgmental. Now, it’s something else.

I can’t quite pinpoint it. It’s not the heat I saw when he pinned me against the wall or when we had sex. It’s not even the hunger I caught glimpses of when he looked at me in the office today. It’s not something I can read or interpret, not something I can define.

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